Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T17:10:59.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agency, art and altered consciousness: a motif in French (Quercy) Upper Palaeolithic parietal art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

J.D. Lewis-Williams
J.D. Lewis-Williams*
Affiliation:
Rock Art Research Centre, Department of Archaeology, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Wits 2050, South Africa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Is the meaning of prehistoric art beyond recovery — especially the meaning of early art in deep caves, a remote and strange location which itself suggests some out-of-the-ordinary purpose? David Lewis-Williams has been extending his explorations of meaning in later southern African rock-art to the famous enigma of the European Palaeolithic, here in the particulars of a single distinctive motif.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 274 , December 1997 , pp. 810 - 830
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asaad, G. 1980. Hallucinations in clinical psychiatry: a guide for mental health professionals. New York (NY): Brunner/ Mazel.Google Scholar
Bahn, P. & Vertut, J. 1988. Images of the Ice Age. London: Windward.Google Scholar
Bates, CD. 1992. Sierra Miwok shamans, 1900–1990, in Bean, L.J. (ed.), California Indian shamanism: 97–115. Menlo Park (CA): Ballena Press.Google Scholar
Bender, B. 1989. The roots of inequality, in Miller, D. et al. (ed.), Domination and resistance: 83–93. London: Unwin and Hyman.Google Scholar
Biesele, M. 1980. ‘Old K”au’, in Halifax, (ed.): 54–62.Google Scholar
Bleek, D.F. 1923. The Mantis and his friends. Cape Town: Maskew Miller.Google Scholar
Bleek, D.F. 1935. Beliefs and customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part VII: Sorcerers, Bantu Studies 9: 1–47.Google Scholar
Bleek, D.F. 1936. Beliefs and customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part VIII: More about sorcerors and charms, Bantu Studies 10: 131–62.Google Scholar
Bond, G. 1948. [Cover design]. South African Archaeological Bulletin 3(11).Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Breuil, A. 1979. Four hundred centuries of cave art. Montignac: Centre d’Etude et de Documentation Prehistoriques.Google Scholar
Brindley, CS. 1973. Sensory effects of electrical stimulation of the visual and paravisual cortex in man, in Jung, R. (ed.), Handbook of sensory physiology VII/3B: 583–94. New York (NY): Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Carrithers, M., Collins, S. & Lukes, S. (ed.). 1985. The category of the person: anthropology, philosophy, history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clottes, J. & Courtin, J. 1996. The cave beneath the sea: Paleolithic images at Cosquer. New York (NY): Abrams.Google Scholar
Clottes, J. & Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1996. Les chamanes de la préhistoire: transe et magie dans les grottes ornées. Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Conkey, M.W. 1991. Contexts of action, contexts for power: material culture and gender in the Magdelenian, in Gero, J.M. & Conkey, M.W. (ed.), Engendering archaeology: women and paintings: 57—92. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cytowic, K.E. 1994. The man who tasted shapes. London: Abacus.Google Scholar
De Marais, E., Castillo, L.J. & Earle, T. 1996. Ideology, materialization, and power strategies, Current Anthropology 37: 15–86.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1988. The power of a place in understanding southern San rock engravings, World Archaeology 20: 129–40.Google Scholar
Dickson, B. 1990. The dawn of belief: religion in the Upper Palaeolithic of southwestern Europe. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Dobkin de Rios, M. 1986. Enigma of drug-induced altered states of consciousness among the Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 15: 297–304.Google Scholar
Dowson, T.A. 1988. Revelations of religious reality: the individual in San rock art, World Archaeology 20: 116–28.Google Scholar
Dowson, T.A. 1992. Rock engravings of southern Africa. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press.Google Scholar
Dowson, T.A. 1994. Reading art, writing history: rock art and social change in southern Africa, World Archaeology 25: 332–45.Google Scholar
Edelman, G. 1994. Bright air, brilliant fire: on the matter of the mind. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Eichmeier, J. & Höfer, O. 1974. Endogene Bildmuster. Munich: Urban & Scbwerzenberg.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1972. Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. London: outledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Emboden, W. 1979. Narcotic plants. New York (NY): Macmillan.Google Scholar
Fischer, R. 1975. Cartography of inner space, in Siegel, & West, (ed.): 197–239.Google Scholar
Fock, GJ. & Fock, D. 1989. Felsbilder in Südafrika Teil III: Die Felsbilder im Vaal-Oranje Becken. Köln: Bühlau Verlag.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1965. Madness and civilization. New York (NY): Random House.Google Scholar
Furst, P.T. 1976. Hallucinogens and culture. Novato: Chandler & Sharp.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. 1987a. The painted caves: an introduction to the prehistoric art of Zimbabwe. Harare: Modus.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. 1987b. Themes in the prehistoric art of Zimbabwe, World Archaeology 19: 178–93.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. 1995. The hunter’s vision: the prehistoric art of Zimbabwe. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. 1984. The constitution of society: outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge; Polity Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, F.D. 1972. Speaking in tongues: a cross-cultural study of glossolalia. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, F.D. 1988. Ecstasy, ritual, and alternate reality: religion in a pluralistic world. Bloomington (IL): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Graziosi, P. 1960. Palaeolithic art. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Halifax, J. 1980. Shamanic voices: a survey of visionary narratives. Harmondsworth: Penguin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halifax, J. 1982. Shaman: the wounded healer. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Harner, M.J. (ed.). 1973a. Hallucinogens and shamanism. New York (NY): Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harner, M.J. 1973b. Common themes in South American Indian Yagé experiences, in Harner, M.J. (ed.), Hallucinogens and shamanism: 155–75. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1987. Alliances and ritual ecstasy: human responses to resource stress, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 26: 81–91.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1990. The cultural capacities of Neanderthals: a review and reevaluation, Journal of Human Evolution 24: 113–46.Google Scholar
Hedges, K. 1983. The shamanic origins of rock art, in Van Tilburg, J.A. (ed.), Ancient images on stone: rock art of the Californias: 46–58. Los Angeles (CA): Insititute of Archaeology, University of California Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1982. Sequences of structural change in the Dutch Neolithic, in Hodder, I. (ed.), Symbolic and structural archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hollis, M. 1985. Of masks and men, in Carrithers, et al. (ed.): 217–33.Google Scholar
Huffman, T.N. 1983. The trance hypothesis and the rock art of Zimbabwe, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 4: 49—53.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.H. 1989. Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8: 189–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, A.A. & Winter, M. 1996. Ideology, power, and urban society in pre-Hispanic Oaxaca, Current Anthropology 37: 33–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R. 1982. Boiling energy: community-healing among the Kalahari !Kung. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klüver, H. 1942. Mechanisms of hallucinations, in Mcnemar, Q. & Merrill, M.A. (ed.), Studies in personality: 175–207. New York (NY): McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. 1972. Hallucinogens and the shamanic origins of religion, in Furst, P.T. (ed.), Flesh of the gods: the ritual use of hallucinogens: 261–278. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. 1975. Anthropological perspectives on hallucinations and hallucinogens, in Siegel, & West, (ed.): 9–52.Google Scholar
Laming-Emperaire, A. 1962. La signification de l’art rupestre Paléolithique: méthodes et applications. Paris: Picard.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1968. The art of prehistoric man in western Europe. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1982. The dawn of European art: an introduction to Palaeolithic cave painting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. & Allain, J. 1979. Lascaux inconnu. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1963. The structural study of myth, in Lévi-Strauss, C, Structural anthropology. 206–31. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1972. The syntax and function of the Giant’s Castle rock paintings, South African Archaeological Bulletin 27: 49–65.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1974. Superpositioning in a sample of rock-paintings in the Barkly East district, South African Archaeological Bulletin 29: 93–103.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1980. Ethnography and iconography: aspects of southern San thought and art, Man 15: 467–82.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1981. Believing and seeing: symbolic meanings in southern San rock paintings. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1983. The rock art of southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1988. Reality and non-reality in San rock art. Johannesburg: Institute for the Study of Man in Africa.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1990a. Discovering southern African rock art. Cape Town: David Philip.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1990b. On Palaeolithic art and the neuropsychological model, Current Anthropology 31: 407–8.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1991a. Wrestling with analogy: a methodological dilemma in Upper Palaeolithic art research, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57(1): 149–62.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1991b. Upper Palaeolithic art in the 1990s: a southern African perspective, South African Journal of Science 87: 422—9.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1992. Ethnographic evidence relating to ‘trancing’ and ‘shamans’ among northern and southern Bushman groups, South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 56–60.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1994. Rock art and ritual: southern Africa and beyond, Complutum 5: 277–289.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1995. Modelling the production and consumption of rock art, South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 143–54.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1988. Signs of all times: entoptic phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic art, Current Anthropology 29: 201–45.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1989. Images of power: understanding Bushman rock art. Johannesburg: Southern Book Publishers.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1990. Through the veil: San rock paintings and the rock face, South African Archaeological Bulletin 45: 5–16.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1992. Art rupestre San et Paléolithique supérieur: le lien analogique, L’Anthropologie 96 (4): 789-90.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T.A. 1993. On vision and power in the Neolithic: evidence from the decorated monuments, Current Anthropology 34: 55–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lommel, A. 1967. The world of early hunters. London: Evelyn, Adams & Mackay.Google Scholar
Lorblanchet, M. 1984a. Grotte de Cougnac, in L’Art des cavernes: atlas des grottes ornées Paléolithiques Françaises: 468–37. Paris: Ministère de la Culture.Google Scholar
Lorblanchet, M. 1984b. Grotte du Pech-Merle, in L’art des cavernes: atlas des grottes ornees Paléolithiques Françaises: 467–74. Paris: Ministère de la Culture.Google Scholar
Maggs, T.M.O’C. 1967. A quantitative analysis of the rock art from a sample area in the western Cape, South African Journal of Science 63: 100–104.Google Scholar
Marshack, A. 1972. The roots of civilization. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Marshall, L. 1962. !Kung Bushman religious beliefs, Africa 32: 221–51.Google Scholar
Méroc, L. & Mazet, J. 1977. Cougnac. Gourdon: Edition des Grottes de Cougnac.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1987. Material culture and mass consumption. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pacer, H. 1971. Ndedema. Graz: Akademische Druck.Google Scholar
Pacer, H. 1973. Rock paintings in southern Africa showing bees and honey hunting, Bee World 54: 61–8.Google Scholar
Pfeifer, L. 1970. A subjective report of tactile hallucinations in schizophrenia, Journal of Clinical Psychology 26: 57–60.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, J.E. 1982. The creative explosion: an enquiry into the origins of art and religion. New York (NY): Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1982. Towards an archaeology of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sarbin, T.R. 1967. The concepts of hallucination, Journal of Personality 35: 359–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schultes, R.E. 1976. Hallucinogenic plants. New York (NY): Golden Press.Google Scholar
Shanks, M. & Tilley, C. 1987. Social theory and archaeology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1991. Sacred and profane substances; the ritual of narcotics in later Neolithic Europe, in Garwood, P. et al. (ed.), Sacred and profane: 50–64. Oxford: Oxford Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Segel, R.K. 1977. Hallucinations, Scientific American 237:132–40.Google Scholar
Segel, R.K. 1978. Cocaine hallucinations, American Journal of Psychiatry 135: 309–14.Google Scholar
Segel, R.K. 1985. LSD hallucinations: from ergot to Electric Kool-Aid, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 17: 247–56.Google Scholar
Segel, R.K. 1992. Fire in the brain: clinical tales of hallucination. New York (NY): Dutton.Google Scholar
Siegel, R.K. & West, L.J. (ed.). 1975. Hallucinations: behavior, experience, and theory. New York (NY): John Wiley.Google Scholar
Smith, N.W. 1992. An analysis of Ice Age art: its psychology and belief system. New York (NY): Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Solomon, A. 1994. ‘Mythic women’: a study in variability in San rock art and narrative, in Dowson, T.A. & Lewis-Williams, J.D. (ed.), Contested images: diversity in southern African rock art research: 331–71. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Summers, R. (ed.). 1959. Prehistoric rock art of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Salisbury: Rhodesia and Nyasaland National Publications Trust.Google Scholar
Vlnnicombe, P. 1976. People of the eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought. Pietermaritzburg: Natal University Press.Google Scholar
Weil, A. 1986. The natural mind: an investigation of drugs and the higher consciousness. Boston (MA): Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Winters, W.D 1975. The continuum of CNS excitatory states and hallucinosis, in Siegel, & West, (ed.): 53—70.Google Scholar
Woodhouse, H.C. 1987. Bees and honey in the prehistoric rock art of southern Africa, South African Bee Journal 59 (2): 36–41.Google Scholar